Backpacks or Basilisks?

⟨¯¯\_/¯\⟨ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕝𝕠𝕘𝕦𝕖⟩/¯\_/¯¯⟩

⌈18 years ago...⌋

Backilisks, a species that was often said to have been around longer than the dinosaurs despite the unlikliness of the possibility.

People often asked what a Backilisk is and the explanation is simple. A backpack basilisk. It's in their not-so-creative name after all. However, that is just their common name as their scientific one is 'Serpentes Knapsack', which means 'Serpent Backpack'. See? It is quite simple.

A backpack being called a serpent confuses many because we don't have any real images of what a backilisk looks like but thanks to the many heroic stories that were passed down to generation after generation, we have descriptions of them.

Backilisks could come in any model and colour and if you didn't look close enough, could be mistaken for a regular backpack from afar... But up close it was different. Their fabric was tufted with fur in areas such as the sides of their faces and tips of their tails, their tongues were forked in a mouth full of sharp fangs, their tails were long and snake-like, their legs took a digitigrade form while they skulked on all fours, their limbs were clawed and scaled, their five senses were incredibly enhanced and their eyes were the colour of emeralds and had flecks of gold in them. Of course, Backilisks have different origins and that can impact their appearance too. Let's use a Polish backilisk, also known as the Warsaw Backilisk, for example. They have an addition of wing on their back in the place of their shoulder straps. That's how they were described in their 'true form' anyways..

We all know that these creatures were the subspecies of the regular backpacks we see today and we are very lucky that this species no longer exists in the modern day due to how ruthless and violent they were. They would kill anything on sight to matter what it was and people lived in fear of them and their abilities since the risk of being killed at any point was always high...

Now, why would any species do this? For backilisks it's unknown. They were just highly venomous, bloodthirsty, shape-shifting beasts that were always on the hunt for something to kill and eat. A species this dangerous shouldn't be around people, right? Well, they aren't, luckily enough. The subspecies is extinct and has been for hundreds of years and we're all thankful for that. Brave people in the past hunted these monsters so we wouldn't live in fear of them today! We praise these people of the past for doing us this favour because where would we be tod-

"Liuz, co oglądasz?" an older female voice asked, interrupting the younger female that was speaking on the television.

"Nie jestem pewien... Ale jest kobieta, która mówi o nas, mamo." replied a much younger voice that could only belong to a young boy. The woman, presumably the boy's mother, sighed when she heard his response.

"Nie oglądaj tego, Liuz. Jest pełen kłamstw. Ludzie mylą się co do nas i nie chcę, żebyście myśleli, że jesteśmy... potwory..." the mother said as she reached for the remote and turned the television off. "Słuchaj, cieszę się, że oglądałeś angielski program, ale... Tylko nie oglądaj tego, dobrze? Po prostu obejrzyj kreskówkę następnym razem." she added afterwards.

"Dobra, mamo.. Dlaczego i tak muszę uczyć się angielskiego?" the boy asked his mother, confused.

"Ponieważ jesteśmy w nowym kraju i nie mówi się tutaj naszym językiem. To dlatego ciocia Maryja cię uczy, kiedy nas wzywa, ponieważ nie może do nas przyjść." The woman answered.

The boy stared at his mother when he received that answer. He guessed that it made a little bit of sense but then he had another question. "Nie chcę, żeby ludzie dowiedzieli się, że jestem jednym z nas, kiedy będę starszy. Czy będę musiał zmienić nazwisko?"

There wasn't a response for a moment. His mother probably wasn't expecting a question like that from her son. She did eventually reply though. "Nie jest to konieczne, ale jeśli chcesz zmienić nazwisko, gdy masz osiemnaście lat, możesz to zrobić. Chcesz to zmienić?"

The little boy nodded to her and she asked him the simplest question there could be. "Na co chcesz to zmienić?"

There was a brief moment of silence before he answered the question.

"Liam."